How Tesla Counts Its 1.74 Million Self-Driving Customers

A new footnote in Tesla’s quarterly report reveals that its self-driving software customer count includes owners who paid a lump sum years ago, rather than just current monthly payers.

In its shareholder letter for the third quarter of 2026, the electric vehicle maker stated it now has 1.74 million active Full Self-Driving subscriptions. This figure represents a 67 percent increase from the same period last year. The company explicitly noted that this metric is calculated to align with the 2025 CEO Performance Award. Under this specific definition, the count includes both customers who purchase the software upfront and those who pay a monthly fee, provided the vehicle is active. The only category excluded from this total is free trials.

This accounting method is significant because reaching 10 million active FSD subscriptions is a key operational milestone required for Elon Musk to earn his 2025 compensation package. Tesla stopped selling FSD as a one-time purchase on February 14, 2026. Since then, new U.S. customers have only been able to access the feature via a $99 monthly subscription. However, the many owners who bought the software outright before that date, at prices up to $15,000, remain in the active count. Despite this growth, Tesla has not disclosed how many of the 1.74 million users are actually paying the monthly fee versus those who bought in. The company last reported 1.28 million under this definition in April, meaning it added 260,000 net subscriptions in the last quarter.

The letter also highlighted a 75 percent attach rate for FSD in North American deliveries during the third quarter, which the company described as a nearly twenty percentage point increase from the previous quarter. Tesla believes the software is driving demand in markets where it is available. However, the company did not define exactly how this attach rate is calculated. It is unclear whether this figure includes subscriptions started with introductory offers or how many of those initial buyers are still paying after several months.

This approach to counting is consistent with other metrics in the report. For instance, Tesla’s cumulative delivery figure, now at 10.2 million, also counts unsupervised Robotaxis placed into commercial operation. This aligns with the pay package, which includes a milestone of 20 million vehicles delivered. As of June 30, Tesla considered only the 20 million delivery target probable among the operational milestones for the award. The other targets include 10 million active FSD subscriptions, 1 million Optimus robots, and 1 million robotaxis in commercial operation.

The 2025 award consists of 12 tranches, each requiring a specific market capitalization and operational milestone. The compensation plan runs until 2035. At the current pace of adding roughly 700,000 subscriptions per year over the last 12 months, it would take approximately 12 years to reach the 10 million target. If the company maintains its best-ever quarterly growth rate of 260,000 new subscriptions, the timeline would shorten to about eight years. Investors and analysts are watching these numbers closely, as the definition was written to satisfy the board’s compensation structure rather than to provide a straightforward view of recurring revenue.

The next step will be seeing if the high attach rate translates into long-term retention. If 75 percent of new buyers stick with the $99 monthly service, it would represent a substantial new revenue stream. For now, the 1.74 million figure stands as the headline software metric, blending one-time buyers and monthly subscribers into a single number tied to executive pay.